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rious of villas, was proposed as a con- The Protestants of Ireland were in venient retreat. When the Lords had extreme peril. There was only one come to this conclusion, they requested way to secure their estates and their the Prince to join them. Their opinion lives; and that was to keep His Majesty was then communicated to him by close prisoner. It might not be prudent Halifax. William listened and ap- to shut him up in an English castle. proved. A short message to the King But he might be sent across the sea was drawn up. Whom," said William, and confined in the fortress of Breda "shall we send with it?" 66 Ought it till the affairs of the British Islands not," said Halifax, "to be conveyed by were settled. If the Prince were in one of Your Highness's officers ?" possession of such a hostage, Tyrconnel "Nay, my Lord," answered the Prince; would probably lay down the sword of "by your favour, it is sent by the ad-state; and the English ascendency vice of your Lordships, and some of you would be restored in Ireland without a ought to carry it." Then, without blow. If, on the other hand, James pausing to give time for remonstrance, should escape to France and make his he appointed Halifax, Shrewsbury, and appearance at Dublin, accompanied by Delamere to be the messengers.* a foreign army, the consequences must The resolution of the Lords appeared be disastrous. William owned that to be unanimous. But there were in there was great weight in these reasons: the assembly those who by no means but it could not be. He knew his wife's approved of the decision in which they temper; and he knew that she never affected to concur, and who wished to would consent to such a step. Indeed see the King treated with a severity it would not be for his own honour to which they did not venture openly to treat his vanquished kinsman so unrecommend. It is a remarkable fact graciously. Nor was it quite clear that that the chief of this party was a peer generosity might not be the best policy. who had been a vehement Tory, and Who could say what effect such severity who afterwards died a Nonjuror, Cla- as Clarendon recommended might prorendon. The rapidity, with which, at duce on the public mind of England? this crisis, he went backward and for- Was it impossible that the loyal enward from extreme to extreme, might thusiasm, which the King's misconduct seem incredible to people living in had extinguished, might revive as soon quiet times, but will not surprise those as it was known that he was within who have had an opportunity of watch-the walls of a foreign fortress? On ing the course of revolutions. He knew these grounds William determined not that the asperity, with which he had, to subject his father in law to personal in the royal presence, censured the restraint; and there can be little doubt whole system of government, had given that the determination was wise.* mortal offence to his old master. On James, while his fate was under disthe other hand he might, as the uncle cussion, remained at Whitehall, fasciof the Princesses, hope to be great and nated, as it seemed, by the greatness rich in the new world which was about and nearness of the danger, and unequal to commence. The English colony in to the exertion of either struggling or Ireland regarded him as a friend and flying. In the evening news came that patron; and he felt that on the confi- the Dutch had occupied Chelsea and dence and attachment of that great in- Kensington. The King, however, preterest much of his importance depended.pared to go to rest as usual. The ColdTo such considerations as these the stream Guards were on duty at the principles which he had, during his palace. They were commanded by whole life, ostentatiously professed, William Earl of Craven, an aged man now gave way. He repaired to the Prince's closet, and represented the danger of leaving the King at liberty.

* Burnet, i. 800.; Clarendon's Diary, Dec. 17. 1688; Van Citters, Dec. 18. 18. 1688.

*Burnet, i. 800.; Conduct of the Duchess

of Marlborough; Mulgrave's Account of the

Revolution. Clarendon says nothing of this under the proper date; but see his Diary, August 19. 1689.

The Dutch troops

Occupy Whitehall.

who, more than fifty years before, had that the Prince would be at Westbeen distinguished in war and love, minster in a few hours, and that His who had led the forlorn hope at Creutz- Majesty would do well to set out for nach with such courage that he had been Ham before ten in the morning. James patted on the shoulder by the great made some difficulties. He did not Gustavus, and who was believed to like Ham. It was a pleasant place in have won from a thousand rivals the the summer, but cold and comfortless heart of the unfortunate Queen of Bo- at Christmas, and was moreover unfurhemia. Craven was now in his eightieth nished. Halifax answered that furniyear; but time had not tamed his spirit.* ture should be instantly sent in. The It was past ten o'clock when he was three messengers retired, but were informed that three battalions speedily followed by Middleton, who of the Prince's foot, mingled told them that the King would greatly with some troops of horse, prefer Rochester toHam. They answered were pouring down the long that they had not authority to accede to avenue of Saint James's Park, with His Majesty's wish, but that they would matches lighted, and in full readiness instantly send off an express to the for action. Count Solmes, who com- Prince, who was to lodge that night at manded the foreigners, said that his Sion House. A courier started immeorders were to take military possession diately, and returned before daybreak of the posts round Whitehall, and ex-with William's consent. That consent, horted Craven to retire peaceably. Craven swore that he would rather be cut in pieces: but when the King, who was undressing himself, learned what was passing, he forbade the stout old soldier to attempt a resistance which must have been ineffectual. By eleven the Coldstream Guards had withdrawn; and Dutch sentinels were pacing the rounds on every side of the palace. Some of the King's attendants asked whether he would venture to lie down surrounded by enemies. He answered that they could hardly use him worse than his own subjects had done, and, with the apathy of a man stupefied by disasters, went to bed and to sleep.†

Scarcely was the palace again quiet

Message

Prince

when it was again roused. A from the little after midnight the three delivered Lords arrived from Windsor. to James. Middleton was called up to receive them. They informed him that they were charged with an errand which did not admit of delay. The King was awakened from his first slumber; and they were ushered into his bedchamber. They delivered into his hand the letter with which they had been entrusted, and informed him

*Harte's Life of Gustavus Adolphus.

† Life of James, ii. 264. mostly from Orig. Mem.; Mulgrave's Account of the Revolution; Rapin de Thoyras. It must be remembered that in these events Rapin was himself an

actor.

indeed, was most gladly given: for there could be no doubt that Rochester had been named because it afforded facilities for flight; and that James might fly was the first wish of his nephew.*

Rochester.

On the morning of the eighteenth of December, a rainy and stormy James sets morning, the royal barge was out for early at Whitehall stairs: and round it were eight or ten boats filled with Dutch soldiers. Several noblemen and gentlemen attended the King to the waterside. It is said, and may well be believed, that many tears were shed. For even the most zealous friend of liberty could scarcely have seen, unmoved, the sad and ignominious close of a dynasty which might have been so great. Shrewsbury did all in his power to sooth the fallen Sovereign. Even the bitter and vehement Delamere was softened. But it was observed that Halifax, who was generally distinguished by his tenderness to the vanquished, was, on this occasion, less compassionate than his two colleagues. The mock embassy to Hungerford was doubtless still rankling in his mind.†

*Life of James, ii. 265. Orig. Mem.; Mulgrave's Account of the Revolution; Burnet, i. 801.; Van Citters, Dec. 18. 1688.

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William

at Saint James's.

While the King's barge was slowly the public veneration was this, that working its way on rough waves down God had set it apart and consecrated it the river, brigade after brigade of the to the high office of defending truth Prince's troops marched into London and freedom against tyrants from genefrom the west. It had been wisely de-ration to generation. On the same day termined that the duty of the capital all the prelates who were in town, should be chiefly done by the British Sancroft excepted, waited on the Prince soldiers in the service of the States in a body. Then came the clergy of General. The three English regiments London, the foremost men of their prowere quartered in and round the Tower, fession in knowledge, eloquence, and the three Scotch regiments in South-influence, with their Bishop at their wark.* head. With them were mingled some In defiance of the weather a great eminent dissenting ministers, whom Arrival of multitude assembled between Compton, much to his honour, treated Albemarle House and Saint with marked courtesy. A few months James's Palace to greet the earlier, or a few months later, such Prince. Every hat, every cane, was courtesy would have been considered adorned with an orange riband. The by many Churchmen as treason to the bells were ringing all over London. Church. Even then it was but too plain Candles for an illumination were dis- to a discerning eye that the armistice posed in the windows. Faggots for to which the Protestant sects had been bonfires were heaped up in the streets. forced would not long outlast the danger William, however, who had no taste from which it had sprung. About a for crowds and shouting, took the road hundred Nonconformist divines, resithrough the Park. Before nightfall he dent in the capital, presented a separate arrived at Saint James's in a light car-address. They were introduced by riage, accompanied by Schomberg. In Devonshire, and were received with a short time all the rooms and staircases in the palace were thronged by those who came to pay their court. Such was the press, that men of the highest rank were unable to elbow their way into the presence chamber. While Westminster was in this state of excitement, the Common Council was preparing at Guildhall an address of thanks and congratulation. The Lord Mayor was unable to preside. He had never held up his head since the Chancellor had been dragged into the justice room in the garb of a collier. But the Aldermen and the other officers of the corporation were in their places. On the following day the magistrates of the City went in state to pay their duty to their deliverer. Their gratitude was eloquently expressed by their Recorder, Sir George Treby. Some princes of the House of Nassau, he said, had been the chief officers of a great republic. Others had worn the imperial crown. But the peculiar title of that illustrious line to

* Van Citters, December 18. 1688.

Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary; Clarendon's Diary, Dec. 18. 1688; Revolution Politics.

every mark of respect and kindness. The lawyers paid their homage, headed by Maynard, who, at ninety years of age, was as alert and clearheaded as when he stood up in Westminster Hall to accuse Strafford. "Mr. Serjeant," said the Prince, "you must have survived all the lawyers of your standing." "Yes, sir," said the old man, "and, but for Your Highness, I should have survived the laws too."*

But, though the addresses were numerous and full of eulogy, though the acclamations were loud, though the illuminations were splendid, though Saint James's Palace was too small for the crowd of courtiers, though the theatres were every night, from the pit to the ceiling, one blaze of orange ribands, William felt that the difficulties of his enterprise were but beginning. He had pulled a government down. The far harder task of reconstruction was now to be performed. From the moment of his landing till he

*Fourth Collection of Papers relating to the present juncture of affairs in England, 1688; Burnet, i. 802, 803.; Calamy's Life and Times of Baxter, chapter xiv.

reached London, he had exercised the, though they could not, with a clear authority which, by the laws of war, conscience, choose a king for themacknowledged throughout the civilised selves, would accept, without hesitation, world, belongs to the commander of an a king given to them by the event of army in the field. It was now neces- war.* sary that he should exchange the character of a general for that of a magistrate; and this was no easy task. A single false step might be fatal; and it was impossible to take any step without offending prejudices and rousing angry passions.

He is advised to assume

the crown

On the other side, however, there were reasons which greatly preponde rated. The Prince could not claim the crown as won by his sword without a gross violation of faith. In his Manifesto he had declared that he had no design of conquering England; that those who imputed to him such a design foully calumniated, not only himself, but the patriotic noblemen and gentlemen who had invited him over; that the force which he brought with him was evidently inadequate to an enterprise so arduous; and that it was his full resolution to refer all the public grievances, and all his own pretensions, to a free Parliament. For no earthly object could it be right or wise that he should forfeit his word so solemnly pledged in the face of all Europe. Nor was it certain that, by calling himself a conqueror, he would have removed the scruples which made rigid Churchmen unwilling to acknowledge him as king. For, call himself what he might, all the world knew that he was not really a

Some of the Prince's advisers pressed him to assume the crown at once as his own by right of conquest, and then, as King, to by right of send out, under his Great Seal, conquest. writs calling a Parliament. This course was strongly recommended by some eminent lawyers. It was, they said, the shortest way to what could otherwise be attained only through innumerable difficulties and disputes. It was in strict conformity with the auspicious precedent set after the battle of Bosworth by Henry the Seventh. It would also quiet the scruples which many respectable people felt as to the lawfulness of transferring allegiance from one ruler to another. Neither the law of England nor the Church of England recognised any right in sub-conqueror. It was notoriously a mere jects to depose a sovereign. But no fiction to say that this great kingdom, jurist, no divine, had ever denied that with a mighty fleet on the sea, with a a nation, overcome in war, might, with- regular army of forty thousand men, out sin, submit to the decision of the and with a militia of a hundred and God of battles. Thus, after the Chaldean fifty thousand men, had been, without conquest, the most pious and patriotic one siege or battle, reduced to the state Jews did not think that they violated of a province by fifteen thousand intheir duty to their native King by vaders. Such a fiction was not likely serving with loyalty the new master to quiet consciences really sensitive: whom Providence had set over them. but it could scarcely fail to gall the The three confessors, who were marvel-national pride, already sore and irrilously preserved in the furnace, held table. The English soldiers were in a high office in the province of Babylon. Daniel was minister successively of the Assyrian who subjugated Judea, and of the Persian who subjugated Assyria. Nay, Jesus himself, who was, according to the flesh, a prince of the house of David, had, by commanding his countrymen to pay tribute to Cæsar, pronounced that foreign conquest annuls hereditary right and is a legitimate title to dominion. It was therefore probable that great numbers of Tories,

temper which required the most delicate management. They were conscious that, in the late campaign, their part had not been brilliant. Captains and privates were alike impatient to prove that they had not given way before an inferior force from want of courage. Some Dutch officers had been indiscreet enough to boast, at a tavern over their wine, that they had driven the King's

*Burnet, i. 803.

*

army before them. This insult had the respect due to a Parliament. One raised among the English troops a fer- Chamber might be formed of the nument which, but for the Prince's prompt merous Lords Spiritual and Temporal interference, would probably have ended who were then in London, and another in a terrible slaughter. What, in such of old members of the House of Comcircumstances, was likely to be the mons and of the magistrates of the effect of a proclamation announcing City. The scheme was ingenious, and that the commander of the foreigners was promptly executed. The Peers considered the whole island as lawful prize of war?

were summoned to Saint James's on the twenty-first of December. About seventy attended. The Prince requested them to consider the state of the country, and to lay before him the result of their deliberations. Shortly after appeared a notice inviting all

of Commons during the reign of Charles the Second to attend His Highness on the morning of the twenty-sixth. The Aldermen of London were also summoned; and the Common Council was requested to send a deputation.*

It was also to be remembered that, by putting forth such a proclamation, the Prince would at once abrogate all the rights of which he had declared himself the champion. For the authority of a foreign conqueror is not cir-gentlemen who had sate in the House cumscribed by the customs and statutes of the conquered nation, but is, by its own nature, despotic. Either, therefore, it was not competent to William to declare himself King, or it was competent to him to declare the Great Charter and the Petition of Right nullities, to abolish trial by jury, and to raise taxes without the consent of Parliament. He might, indeed, reestablish the ancient constitution of the realm. But, if he did so, he did so in the exercise of an arbitrary discretion. English liberty would thenceforth be held by a base tenure. It would be, not, as heretofore, an immemorial inheritance, but a recent gift which the generous master who had bestowed it might, if such had been his pleasure,

He calls together the Lords and the members

liaments

of Charles

It has often been asked, in a reproachful tone, why the invitation was not extended to the members of the Parliament which had been dissolved in the preceding year. The answer is obvious. One of the chief grievances of which the nation complained was the manner in which that Parliament had been elected. The majority of the burgesses had been returned by constituent bodies remodelled in a manner which was generally regarded as illegal, and which the Prince had, in his Declaration, condemned. James himself had, just before his downfall, consented to restore the old municipal franchises. It would surely have been the height of inconsistency in William, after taking up arms for the purpose of vindicating the invaded charters of corporations, to recognise persons chosen in defiance of those charters as the legitimate representatives of the towns of England. On Saturday the twenty-second the Lords met in their own house.

have withheld. William therefore righteously and prudently determined to observe the promises contained in his Declaration, and to leave of the Par. to the legislature the office of settling the government. So IL carefully did he avoid whatever looked like usurpation that he would not, without some semblance of parliamentary authority, take upon himself even to convoke the Estates of the Realm, or to direct the executive day was employed in settling the order administration during the elections. of proceeding. A clerk was appointed; Authority strictly parliamentary there was none in the state: but it was possible to bring together, in a few hours, an assembly which would be regarded by the nation with a large portion of

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That

and, as no confidence could be placed in any of the twelve Judges, some serjeants and barristers of great note were requested to attend, for the purpose of

* History of the Desertion; Clarendon's Diary, Dec. 21. 1688; Burnet, i. 803. and Onslow's note.

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